Sulu Army's 104th Brigade Command has new chief

Colonel Antonio Supnet, commander of the Task Force Zamboanga (TFZ), was relieved and reassigned to Sulu to head the Army’s 104th Brigade, replacing Brigadier General Reynaldo Saelana.

Supnet took over the command following the visit of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Hermogenes Esperon in Jolo, Sulu on Monday.

Supnet was chief of staff of the Southern Command (now Western Mindanao Command) prior to his assignment as Task Force Zamboanga commander sometime in August 2006.

One of his accomplishments was the prevention of entry of a thousand of bomb ingredients sneaked in by suspected Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah militants to the port of Zamboanga.

It is not known who will succeed Supnet in the Task Force Zamboanga.

“The change of command was supposed to be first week of December. We’re doing this to make our offices dynamic and give chance to junior officers to move on,” Saelana said in a radio interview.

It was learned from a military source in Sulu that Saelana will be assigned to another brigade command in Mindanao that hunt down the Communist Party of the Philippines’ New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).

Troops who have been hunting down the combined JI and al Qaeda-linked ASG terrorists in the hinterlands of Sulu since August last year dubbed as “Operations Plan Ultimatum” were ordered to intensify operations against high value targets.

On Tuesday evening, troops under the anti-terror Task Force Comet killed a senior leader of the Abu Sayyaf group, tagged as responsible for kidnap-for-ransom, bombings, military and civilian liquidation, in a raid in Patikul town.

Killed was Binang Sali alias “Freedom”, a leader of the Abu Sayyaf urban terrorist group operating in Jolo who carries a P1 million reward for his neutralization or capture.

Military also blamed him for the kidnapping of Ms. Jacqueline Silben and her son Jefrey at Barangay Gandasuli, Patikul, Sulu last July 20, 2006.

It can be recalled that Jefrey was hacked to death by his kidnappers and his mother was seriously wounded during the rescue operation conducted by the elements of Joint Task Force Comet.

Members of the Military Intelligence Group 9 backed by the 104th Brigade, Scout Rangers and Special Forces pinned him down in a brief encounter at sitio Pula, Upper Halaw Village, Barangay Anuling.

Troops recovered a .45 caliber pistol and various bomb paraphernalia and improvised explosive device (IED) components from the battle site.

Army Major Eugene Batara, WesMinCom spokesman, said Sali was completely surprised as the operating troops used stealth and the cover of darkness to their advantage.

“The terrorist leader had no choice but to fight it out as he realized to be surrounded by government troops. The brief firefight resulted to his untimely death,” Batara said.

With this development, he added the AFP troops prevented the ASG-UTG to conduct bombing and other terroristic action against the AFP and the innocent civilians.

To date, troops in Sulu have killed 9 terrorists in a span of four days period, according to Batara. (HG)